internet

“a holocaust of prose”

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seen via Justine Larbalestier:

The Worst Review Ever, a blog where writers, actors, musicians, etc, can submit the worst review they’ve ever received. Personally, I think some of these are extraordinarily cruel (Hello, “a candy-coated turd”), but I’ve been known to hate on a book or two in my time.

I do disagree with Justine Larbalestier when she says its “awesome” that people react so intensely to her books. When I have a powerful negative response to a book, it’s not because of its engaging qualities, any more than Charles Manson should feel warm and snuggly inside because he’s evoked strong feelings from me.

Hey, authors, have anything you want to send?

Quote from an everyday conservative:

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We weren’t happy with Bush, but every four years if you want your vote to count you have two choices, and in 2004 the two choices were between someone who wanted the US to win the war we were in, and someone who wanted the US to lose…

That’s a quote from one of the conservative commenters on John Scalzi’s blog, and it boggles me. Not “OMG SO CRAZY” boggle, but more of a “Really? You really believe John Kerry wanted the U.S. to lose a war? Really?”

Here’s the thing: I believe, honestly and forthrightly, that the militaristic voters in this country be they right, center or left (although most of them are very far right) actually put this country in danger. I believe that engaging terrorism primarily through bombs and waterboarding and dragging people from their homes in the middle of the night to humiliate them… I believe that makes us more likely to face another 9/11-type attack.

But I would never kid myself into thinking that’s what those militaristic voters actually wanted. I know they want U.S. citizens around the world to be safe, and they want the government to do what it has to do to ensure that.

I would never assume, though, that they were deliberately working against their own country. Misguidedly causing harm where they wanted to improve things? Yes. Trying to create defeat? No. I’m sorry. No.

“George R.R. Martin is not working for you.”

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I’ve been thinking about Neil Gaiman’s post on this subject for a little while, and prompted by Jim Hines’ discussion of it (and Gaiman’s followup), I thought I’d toss in my two cents, which no one asked for.

Continue reading

The Blue Beanie

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For folks who like Samorost, Jay Is Games is offering a new free game: The Blue Beanie.

Created by a Malaysian artist studying multimedia in Australia, it’s a gorgeous point and click puzzle game about a ghostly woodland creature trying to retrieve, yes, a stolen Blue Beanie.

It’s beautiful to look at and the puzzle solutions are pretty logical. Also, if you’re stuck on what to do next, you can click on the ghost–he looks at the thing he wants you to work on next. There’s also a walkthrough at the top.

Wonderful. And kid-friendly.

Hooray for Wing-it!

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Recently, the Seattle Chamber of Commerce held a contest to award $35K for an office makeover (Sorry, and “extreme” office makeover!) and my friends at Wing-It Productions were one of the finalists.

And the won! Check out the hot linked image!

Can I get that size checks with duplicates?

Recognize that guy on the left? Huh? Huh?

Child of Fire Cover

Anyway, they put together a great video which you can watch at the Chamber web site. I’ve known Mike and Andrew for many years and I couldn’t be happier for them.

Congratulations, guys!

If I ever start talking like this…

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… please, someone, anyone, kick me in the nuts and shut me up.

In my view the bias against science fiction exhibited by so many mainstream critics and authors doesn’t map vaguely onto racial bigotry — it maps precisely onto racial bigotry. The literati have prejudged the entire enterprise. They know in their gut that SF is worthless, all Buck Rogers and ray guns and Star Wars, so they needn’t bother to learn anything about it. Sure, the literati will acknowledge the occasional exception like Ray Bradbury — a real credit to his race, that man — but this “some of my best friends write genre fiction” malarkey only reinforces the prejudice.

My eyes, they can’t stop rolling.

Seen via bookslut

I love this sort of thing

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Only an hour

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Ah, well. I only got an hour of free time for my writing today. No big. I’ll make up for it tomorrow.

But for you, dear Reader, I have a link: Morningstar.

What is that, you wonder? It’s a free online game of the point-and-click narrative variety. It’s also remarkably well done–the visuals are excellent, the voice acting (there’s a lot of voice acting) very strong (although you can mute the sound) and you can even save the game part way through.

The story is simple: You’re second-in-command on the space ship Morningstar, and the opening of the game is a fantastic little cut scene of you and your ship crash landing on the surface of an alien world. The captain is injured and unable to move (but full of advice) and your engineer is dead. Can you salvage enough of your ship to make lift off? Why did you crash in the first place, and what happened to the other ship lying wrecked across the sand. Finally, how can you prevent it happening again when you try to leave?

It’s a surprisingly long game, with a lot of detail, and the story takes you much further down the rabbit hole than you expect. And of course, it’s all about the puzzles. How do you get this control panel to work? Where are all the pieces of the hull-repairing glue dispenser? What are you going to do about the ruined CO2 filter?

You click on items to pick them up, combine them, and use them with objects in the environment. Best of all, the objects are used in ways that are thoroughly sensible–not always a given in this sort of game. The captain gives you hints about the next step in the mission, but there’s a walkthrough, too, just in case. And the visuals are excellent. Hell, even if you just watch the pre-title animation sequence, you’ll be impressed.

It’s great fun. One of the best c&p games I’ve played in a long, long time. Enjoy.

Quote of the day:

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“For all his veniality and selfishness, Cat was a cool, smart dresser, unlike most _Red Dwarf_ fans,who smelt of piss.”
— Patrick West

Meme!

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This meme is stolen from Brett. Open your current WIP and type out the first ten verbs that appear in the manuscript.

I went to Man Bites World, because it’s newest.

  1. was
  2. sat
  3. did
  4. slumped
  5. fidgeted
  6. stared
  7. pulled
  8. was
  9. was
  10. had been
  11. grown

Boy, that doesn’t sound promising, does it? It’ll work when it’s finished, though. I promise!

Also, thank you to everyone who has been voting in my polls. Today’s is about recurring characters in a series and last weeks poll (which I should close this weekend about what I should do with my ARE copies of Child of Fire.